The Last Surprise
by madasmonty
Summary: The Master has earth in his grasp and Jack and the Doctor are trapped and powerless. But that isn't enough for the Master. He has one last surprise to taunt the Doctor with...


The Last Surprise

"And now Doctor, for my last surprise."

"There's more. Oh joy." Jack bitched from his position on the floor.

"My love, come here." The Master said his eyes never leaving the Doctor, his hand stretching backwards to beckon his wife.

"Yes darling." She simpered with a sickly smile.

"Swallow this." He demanded, producing a small pill from his pocket.

The woman dutifully swallowed the pill. It took only a second for her to fall, and for the first time the Master stopped looking at the Doctor and looked down upon the woman, he sat beside her and pulled her head into his lap. He stroked her head with an unusual tenderness. "It will all be over soon."

She just looked at him, her head cocking to the side.

"You see Doctor." He said as the woman began glowing. "I looked for them, for all of them, not just the planet." Then it was brighter and the details of her body were obscured. "And I found her, driven mad by surviving. You see you-" She began to exude something that looked like flames, and a low-pitched sighing, almost singing, began. "May have escaped, unscathed, but she, she was mad, and she was physically..." The sound became louder and the light brighter. "She was burned all over. So I forced her to regenerate, into Lucy Saxon, I'd already married when I found her, so I killed my wife, and had _her_ take her place." The sound became a scream.

"Who is she?" The Doctor finally asked. His voice was barely a whisper.

"Oh I think you know." The Master said, the light began to dim, the sound once again softened. "I thought the madness would pass, but like mine, it didn't, it just lessened for her. Until I realized what, or rather who, I had to find, and I found her locked in Torchwood. I was surprised, and pleased." The features of the woman, different features, were becoming visible. "So now, this time, her madness should have passed, and to help restore her I used the person who had rested in her mind for so long." It was silent except for the droning outside, and the Master's voice, the light was all but extinguished, "Now she should be able to take her rightful place. The place you should have granted her, that she should have granted herself." The Master laughed at this, the woman, a different woman than his wife by the looks of it, came to.

"She was a tyrant not Romana." The Doctor finally said.

"Don't you understand though, I modified them, _both_."

"What did you do to her?" The Doctor began to rise, but he was weak, so weak.

"He didn't do anything to me, that didn't help me." Came a quiet voice. The woman rose from the Master's lap. Then she turned back to look at the Master and said louder, and with an air of superiority, "I can't believe, I spent a _whole_ regeneration on _Earth_, being your simpering idiot."

The Master laughed, then looked at the Doctor and smiled, eyebrows raised, "She's back!" He crowed triumphantly.

The woman raised herself easily. This body of hers was lithe, she noted. Everyone else did to. The Master (after all he was married to her), The Doctor (after all he did love her), and Jack (after all he was Jack). She offered a hand down to the still sitting Master, he pulled himself up, and pulled her towards him, so they met in an embrace. He kissed her. The Doctor was, shocked.

"Romana!"

"Romana, Ro_mana_." She played with the letters. "I don't like that name." She said turning to the Doctor. "I never really did."

"Shall we find a new name for you?" The Master whispered into her ear.

She grinned back at him, "Yes I think we shall. Nothing as pretentious as you two have though." She said looking back and forth from the Doctor to the Master.

"I always did like Fred, but this body," And she runs her hands over her new body. "Needs to test it for awhile, we might like something more, Gallifreyan."

"What have you done to her?" The Doctor this time did rise from his position Jack, at his side.

"Regenerated her apparently." Jack grumbled form under the Doctor's weight.

"Pandora was the only one who could fix me." Romana said. "Don't worry," She walked to the Doctor. "It's still me there wasn't enough Pandora left to overrule my mind, just enough to fix me. She became one with me, more so than she first was." She leaned into the Doctor's ear. "She is in my bones now." She whispered. "In each and every sinew and synapse, it feels marvelous. Such..." and she pauses, "...Power," she draws out the word, it caresses him, with each letter it feels like she is softly drawing a finger down his stomach, crawling closer, but she pulls back from him to look him in the eye. On the surface, the brown eyes are different, but inside she sees him. When he looks at her though, he is afraid that though there is something slightly different in their gleam it is most definitely _her_. He would never admit that he is as drawn to it as he was to the Vortex, that seduction makes him want to run, just as the Vortex did.

Romana wandered over to the Master's side, a sway in her hips, she had a definite feeling that this body liked power. And there were no ill-conceived ancient robes or rules to bind her now. She was free.

She looked over to the Master and smiled.

Beneath them, the Earth was being destroyed.


End file.
